The sound of Irish drinking songs will lure thousands to the Gaslamp Quarter Saturday, where the green beer will flow for shamROCK 2015.
In traditional St. Patrick’s Day fashion, the drinking starts early to ramp up for the main event on Tuesday.
From 4 p.m. to midnight Saturday, three stages – dubbed the Pub, the Luck of the Irish and the Clover – will be a changing turntable of DJs and bands performing rock, punk rock and other favorites with an Irish bent.
Guests, 21 years and up, will get their car bombs and beer from a 150-foot Irish pub built along Fifth Avenue and F Street, where they can watch River Dancers doing their traditional jigs.
The event is closing down traffic to make way for 80,000 square-feet of Astroturf turning the streets green. F Street between 5th and 7th avenues will be closed down, as will 6th Avenue between E and G streets. The green carpet will be rolled out at the main entrance at 5th Avenue and G Street.
Restaurants and bars throughout downtown will offer specials for the event, like no cover charge or drink discounts.
Tickets start at $40, and VIP passes run $80. Proceeds go to the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation.
Local
To save the presumably drunken crowds from trying their luck finding a taxi, MTS is adding some late-night routes to its trolleys.
The last Green Line trolley to SDSU leaves the Gaslamp Quarter Station at 12:23 a.m., the last Blue Line to San Ysidro departs the 5th Avenue Station at 12:23 a.m., and the last Orange Line to El Cajon will set off from the 5th Avenue Station at 12:25 a.m.
